The simplest and most direct way of describing what business development is all about is that, it is the initiatives and idea taken, discussed and put forth in order to make a certain business bigger and better.

This includes a lot of factors such as the steps taken in the expansion of business, planning strategies and implementing them, seeing where the profit lies and focusing it to grow further and making effective business decisions.

There is a lot of scope and concept and understanding that goes behind Business Development. It doesn’t happen in a day and with just one step taken.

Here are a certain fields where business development can be connected and made to bring in a change

1. Sales need the expansion if they need the advancement

The key function of someone in Sales is to prod upon a targeted client or a particular market which seems to be booming with prospects. Now the sales department makes certain strategies and focus on certain goals to assess these particular markets and see how the sales of that market can be achieved in a specified amount of time that can bring advantage to their field of work. The sales department keeps their main focus on the customer based in the targeted markets with their discussed strategies.

2. Marketing is for the ones with quick brains

Marketing is basically a smart and innovative way of advertising a certain product or a brand that would promote the sale of the same. When we come into the picture of Business development in these scenes, the ones with this initiative need to finalize on a certain budget. Higher the budgets, more effective and extravagant are the marketing strategy like making personal visits or phone calls. Lower budgets call for minimal sort of strategies such a limited newspaper advertisements. So here the Business development helps in allocating the budget based on the kind and level of profit the marketing team is looking for.

3. Cost effective moves for beneficial grounds

A lot of people might conclude that this kind of development is only about promoting sales and advertising marketing reach. But no, it involves a lot of cost saving measures as well. The strategic decisions that are taken need to include cost cutting measures to have a balanced step taken and not overdoing on the expenditure. Through all the new ideas and steps taken for the business development it ultimately aims in developing the business prospective.

Thus here we get a clear idea about how business development is linked with other career linked paths and how it is enabling their growth and advancement.

If you ask a group of people what they think business development is, you would most likely get a few different answers. There is even a chance that your own view of business development and sales may be used interchangeably.

Business development involves more of a strategic approach such as strategy, marketing, customer management, and partnerships; these activities encompass about 75%-80% of the approach, and sales about 20%-25%.

When I get asked the question, does business development have something to do with sales? Yes, it does. Is it related to business growth? Most definitely it does. Does it have anything to do with business strategy? There is a good chance it does.

Business development is a culmination of these different activities but most importantly, it’s all about shifting to the point of view of the client. This will provide you with that new perspective and will have you balance your efforts across these key activities that you and your client will both need and address. Whenever you conduct your business development efforts make sure to take the perspective from the client’s point of view and try to develop a deeper understanding of what their problem is. Realize that the client only cares about one thing and that’s their own group or company’s survival and the problem that they are facing. The client is only interested in you if they identify a need/problem or pain point that you can solve and provide a solution for it. It’s the kind of value that you can provide them that will enable them to consider your firm for the project.

If your firm’s approach is strictly from a sales perspective, generally, the economy of scale is to grow as large as you can. The strategy is to sell your product or service with a clear price and value directly to an identifiable individual client.

From a Business development perspective, the economy of scale is much smaller because the approach to your service is more strategic with the intent to create a partnership. It entails cultivating a relationship with the client and provide a service that could be more cyclical by working through existing partner infrastructures.

In my 14+ years of professional experience in management consulting, business development has been stretched to encompass a wider variety of activities with the intent to stay smaller in size. In its most traditional definition it is all about developing partnerships, which often includes some sales. Whereas, strictly sales are more transaction oriented where scalability is the differentiator.

Home business opportunities are virtually everywhere you look online. And the promoters of each home based business opportunity often claim that the opportunity they promote is the best business opportunity to join. This often makes it difficult for newbies to make the right choice, the choice that best suit their situation. This article takes a look at the four broad categories of home business opportunities so you can identify the option that suit your circumstances and therefore make informed choice.

The four broad categories of home based business opportunities are:

1. Opportunities that involve building an information rich web site from scratch and thereafter monetizing the resulting traffic

2. Opportunities that involve joining affiliate programs that offer unique affiliate links for promoting the affiliate product or service

3. Opportunities that involve joining a network marketing home based business opportunity that offer free distributor web site to members and

4. Opportunities that involve getting paid a fixed amount for completing a set of tasks online

Let’s take a closer look at each option above.

The first online business opportunity involves building your dream online business from scratch.

The right process requires you to do the following:

identify your passion

brainstorm topics that fall within your passion or interest using appropriate brainstorming software

identify a profitable niche that matches your passion or interest

Assemble low competition keywords that define your niche

Draw up a site blueprint

Design your web site

Write content for your web site using the low competition keywords brainstormed earlier

Promote your web site massively online

Add income generating streams to your web site

Cash your money month after month

If you conclude that the above process is tedious and time consuming, you’re probably right.

But why?

It’s because it’s business… it’s online business. And online business takes time, effort, and creativity just like offline does.

The second home business opportunity mentioned above is affiliate program marketing. With this type of online business, you join the affiliate program of your choice and promote the affiliate links you’re given using a blend of online marketing techniques. Some online marketing techniques will produce more results than others. So, you need to track your sales promotion efforts or campaigns to determine what works and what doesn’t for the specific affiliate program you promote. Then drop campaigns that don’t work and do more of what works.

The third category of home based business opportunities are MLM home business opportunities that offer members free distributor web sites to promote the MLM business opportunity. As with the affiliate program model, members of this type of MLM business opportunity promote their member web site url and register new team members using the tools on the member site they were given.

The fourth online business opportunity involves completing a set of tasks in expectation of being paid a pre-determined amount.

This kind of opportunities include:

paid to write

paid to attend to customers (online customer service jobs)

… and other such online job opportunities.

WARNING: Verify that the internet job opportunity you’re interested in is legitimate before you join!

Each of the home business opportunities described above have their pros and cons.

Option 1 above requires you to do a lot of work without immediate reward. With this type of online business, you’re basically writing an online book or journal. And you don’t get paid for writing a book until it’s finished and it starts selling, right?

In simple words, this option is a long-term business where you build traffic or your own customer base through content writing and marketing. This is a tedious but rewarding way to build a long-term business. With this type of home based business you own your traffic or customer base. And when you own your traffic, you own your business.

Option 2 is affiliate program marketing. This system involves selling a product or service by finding a market for it. Depending on where you advertise or promote the affiliate programs, you can begin to make money right away.

Here’s one thing to remember though.

Not everyone makes money from promoting affiliate program products despite spending a lot of money in advertising.

Why?

It’s because affiliate program marketing success requires a set of skills. To succeed, you need to learn the skill-set that guarantees success. Option 3 is much like option 2. You get paid for promoting a network marketing opportunity.

However, unlike most affiliate program opportunities that are free to join, virtually every network marketing home based business opportunity require members to join with a registration fee. Besides the registration fee, members must buy at least one pack of the MLM product they promote every month to stay active and qualify to earn commissions (at least in most programs). This means there is a maintenance cost for most MLM business opportunities.

Option 4 is the most direct form of online business. You get paid to complete a set of assignments. The problem with this is that it’s like having a day job… when you stop working, you stop earning. Whereas with the other kinds of home business opportunities discussed above, you can build your business to a point where what you earn far outweigh the efforts you put in. And you can put your business on auto pilot.

What home business option is right for you right now?

It depends on your current circumstances. In my candid opinion, the overall best option is one that allows you to build a long-term business and put your business on auto pilot down the road.